Bray: A spirit of revival in Arbor Hill

PAUL BRAY

Published 6:04 pm, Sunday, November 9, 2014

The night before the Times Union reported that Albany's Arbor Hill was designated by the American Planning Association as one of the 10 Great Neighborhoods for 2014, I got a couple of emails giving me notice about this designation. At first I felt disbelief because of the distress that characterized Arbor Hill for many decades. Then my associations with the neighborhood came back to me.

My father grew up on Clinton Avenue, and I lived on Clinton Avenue my first five years in an apartment in my grandparent's house. My first year in school before my family moved to the western end of Albany was at the former School 7 on Clinton Avenue.

Aside from the summer heat in our top floor apartment, my memory of living in a portion of Arbor Hill was positive. One uncle of mine had a nearby pharmacy on what was then named Northern Boulevard, and another uncle had a small business on Clinton Avenue. That was a time when family members were not dispersed around the nation.

When I was in high school, Arbor Hill was again part of my life. Mike's Log Cabin as a hang out and the Moon restaurant for pizza in Arbor Hill were frequent and favored destinations.

National recognition of uniquely historic neighborhoods like Arbor Hill has been a missing ingredient keeping Albany from fully realizing its potential as a great city. Arbor Hill is a neighborhood that can look back to an illustrious history and look forward to the benefits of new development.

The architecturally rich Ten Broeck Mansion and Ten Broeck Triangle have roots in the 18th and 19th centuries. The area prospered with lumber barons as the Erie Canal and Hudson River made Albany a center for the shipment and distribution of lumber from the north and west.

Arbor Hill was distinguished by its economic, ethnic and racial diversity. Ten Broeck Street had lavish houses and was called "Millionaires Row." St. Joseph's Church on Ten Broeck was built in 1855 to serve the growing Irish immigrant population that lived near the Triangle and close to jobs on the riverfront. The church is a landmark and important feature in Albany's skyline. African-Americans, though not the predominant group of residents that they are today, were well-integrated with the lumber barons and middle-class residents.

Arbor Hill was part of the Underground Railroad movement and there were many abolitionists in the area. Mary Liz Stewart and her husband Paul are leading the Underground Railroad History Project, which includes restoration of a 19th-century brick home of noted abolitionists Stephen and Harriet Myers on Livingston Avenue. It was a stop along the Underground Railroad. It is now part of a state freedom trail and a member of an Underground Railroad consortium.

Much of historic Arbor Hill has survived. Some portions are in good condition and other portions will need extensive rehabilitation.

Beginning with a grass-roots plan in 2003, partnerships by committed entities like the Albany Housing Authority, Historic Albany Foundation, religious leaders like the Rev. Damone Paul Johnson, creative individuals like Jeff Mirel, and many others are at work in Arbor Hill. Large projects, like the Albany Barn, a sustainable creative arts incubator and arts center providing artist housing and studio space, and small projects, like an art gallery and restored homes, are sparking a real revival of a once-impoverished neighborhood.

A major decrease in the Arbor Hill crime rate and proximity to the Palace Theatre, the Albany Heritage Area Visitor Center in Quackenbush Square and Albany's downtown, which is having a residential revival, should become beneficial for creating the conditions for first-class and safe urban living.

The spirit of the residents in Arbor Hill is a sign that revival will continue. Let us hope that Albany's South End, where the other half of my immigrant family settled, will soon follow in Arbor Hill's footsteps.